Endangered Species

accelerating Endangered Species recovery

The U.S. Endangered Species Act remains the organizing tool for conserving most of America's imperiled wildlife. The Act has ample flexibility to accomodate better outcomes for wildlife. But there are also ways that Congress could make it more effective. We engage on opportunities to keep the Act 95 percent effective at preventing extinctions, recover far more species faster and with less funding, and do both in ways that work better for our economy and the responsible stewards of our lands and waters. Below are some of our current initiatives.

BETTER RULES AND POLICIES

We are shaping the next generation of rules, policies, and practices under the Act. We strive for more transparency and predictability in how the Act is administered--making it easier for people to follow, and rewarding those who invest in conservation earlier. We also advocate for policies that use or promote technology, because it can increase the speed and effectiveness of conservation while reducing its cost. When we evaluate ideas for changes to rules and policies under the Act, we aim for accuracy, fairness, and pragmatism.

INNOVATIVE CONSERVATION PROJECTS

We work with various partners to test innovative conservation projects. For example, we are helping to develop a conservation plan to conserve the monarch butterfly in the lower 48-states--the largest ever Endangered Species Act agreement. Another example is our partnership with Syngenta to create a framework for restoring endangered species habitat on agricultural lands to offset the effects of agricultural pesticide use on those species

HARMONIZING PESTICIDE USE AND SPECIES CONSERVATION

We collaborate with the federal government, universities, agrochemical companies and their customers, and other conservation groups to solve a 45-year problem under the Act: how to minimize the impact of pesticides on endangered species, without disrupting our nation's ability to provide food, feed, and fiber, and to protect public health from disease-carrying pests. Our work on this issue covers policy and regulatory innovations, federal legislation, science and data improvements, increasing funding for pesticide risk asssessments, and on-the-ground conservation initiatives.

Data-centric conservation

Endangered species conservation is full of unknowns, and always will be. Technology can help us learn far more about wildlife, quickly and cheaply. NASA satellite images, for example, allow us to monitor the condition of species habitat for free. And data science tools can vastly improve conservation decisions. We are using these tools to understand past decisions under the Act, so that wildlife managers can make better decisions in the future. For example, we helped develop a new system to improve how recovery funding is spent.

Fueling a wildlife restoration economy

If the private sector can profit from wildlife conservation, they become powerful champions of even more conservation. We develop and pursue incentives for the private sector to thrive in the wildlife restoration business. Endangered species "banks" are one example of this approach that deserve more attention. We also work on incentives for states to lead more on endangered species conservation.

Building a better endangered species act

It has been too long since a bipartisan Congress sought common ground to improve endangered species conservation, but we have not given up hope. We need a law that better reflects the 21st century realities of how effective, dynamic conservation happens in the Anthropocene, not 1960s assumptions of a static world and a wilderness without humanity's footprint. We develop ideas for what a better Act would look like, because we reject the status quo as good enough for wildlife or people.

"Safe Harbor Agreements: An Assessment,” is the second in a series of working papers by wildlife legal expert, Michael J. Bean. This paper reviews the Safe Harbor Agreements that have been developed over the past 22 years to help endangered species and private landowners.

November 2017

LANDOWNER ASSURANCES UNDER THE ESA

“Landowner Assurances Under the ESA,” is the first in a series of working papers by wildlife legal expert, Michael J. Bean. This paper reviews the diversity of tools that have been developed under the Endangered Species Act to give private landowners reasonable assurances and that have allowed thousands of landowners, local government, and businesses to become partners in endangered species conservation or leaders in conservation plans that balance wildlife needs and economic growth.